About Us

Richard, Federico & Patrick Sacarello, 1988

Sacarellos is a family-run coffee and wholesale business which was established 125 years ago on the Rock by Bartolomeo Sacarello, grandson of Giovanni Sacarello. Giovanni arrived in Gibraltar in 1817 from Spotorno near Genova in Italy. He was the captain of a ship trading wools and hides. At the time Gibraltar was a British Garrison with hardly any civilians and depended on the import of all provisions. Giovanni stayed on the Rock and married Maria Bignoni, also originally from the North West of Italy! In 1888 Bartolomeo – their grandson- founded B Sacarello Ltd as a provisions merchant to the Rock.

Before long, Bartolomeo Sacarello, true to his Italian roots was specialising in choice coffee, sourcing the finest beans from Latin America and Africa and blending and roasting them to make the trademark Sacarello blends. The coffees became famous in Gibraltar and the surrounding areas of Spain.

Richard and Johnny In Nicaragua, 2012

Following the death of Bartolomeo, his son Federico – then only 17, had to take charge of the business. Federico dedicated all his working life to B Sacarello Ltd and especially to the coffee. He remained involved until his 90s when his sons, Patrick and Richard, took over the helm. There were difficult years with the closing of the Spanish frontier after 1969 and the subsequent drastic drops in sales, but despite this Patrick and Richard continued to develop and nurture the Sacarello coffee as well as diversifying into the import of other products – wines , foods and spices, detergents and packaging. After the border was re-opened in 1985 they founded Sacarellos Coffee Shop / Restaurant in Irish Town, where the original roaster and coffee warehouse had been housed in Bartolo’s time.

Patrick now runs the coffee shop / restaurant and Richard the coffee and wholesale / distributor company with its new warehouses at Mons Calpe Road. There, the finest Arabica coffee arrives as it always has from Central and South America and Africa. It is blended, roasted and packed ready for distribution all over the Rock and who knows now that the new generation is emerging, perhaps Sacarello Coffee will be seen once again in new frontiers…!